Story Topics | Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County

Bobwhite, a brown quail-like bird with small black and white accents, on the ground

Research and Collections

Scientists and Engineers Measure How Birds Send Heat into Space for the First Time

A new study from scientists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, UCLA, Indiana University, and Cal State University, Dominguez Hills reveals the hidden reflectance of bird feathers through the prism of light, heat, and color

A yellowish-green Sapayoa bird on a branch in a tropical forest

One Tropical Bird's History Through the Lens of Lice

NHM's new Ornithology Collections Manager, Juliana Soto-Patiño, discovers the evolutionary origins of the mysterious Sapayoa aenigma through its parasitic louse

Blue, green, and yellow border around skulls and a hummingbird

Dinosaur Discussions

The Evolution of the Bird Brain and the Origins of Flight with Dr. Amy Balanoff

A paradise tanager looks directly into a camera with its green head cocked, visible red spot on its back, and stunningly bright blue breast.

Research and Collections

Hidden black and white feathers are the secret behind songbirds' dazzling colors

Colorful songbirds like tanagers use a painterly technique to make their colors pop

Vintage illustration of various feathers and specimen skins of birds

Research and Collections

How Bird Feathers Work

A brief look at the structure of feathers—and what they mean to birds

An silhouette of a bird filled with naming words like 'black' 'western' etc

Research and Collections

A First Step to Bird Names as Simple as ABC

First-of-its-kind Avian Lexicon Atlas maps how bird species get their names

Illustration of ice age bird, the teratorn.

Meet Teratorn, the Largest Bird Found at La Brea Tar Pits

The teratorn was undoubtedly big, but was it a big vulture or something else?

A male house finch with a little red plumage around its beak and breast alongside otherwise gray feathers being held still by a person's hand

Research and Collections

Bird banding, Wildfire Smoke, and the Nature Gardens

Researchers band birds and collect feathers in the Nature Gardens to study the impacts of wildfire smoke on birds.

Wildfire Smoke in Bird Feathers

NHM researchers look at dirty feathers to understand the effects of wildfire smoke on birds

The Newly Described Andean Storm-Petrel Is Just Our Type (Specimen)

Get a behind-the-scenes look at Ornithology's type cabinet and meet some of the specimens used to describe new bird species

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